Author: Nikki

This is my “small diversionary WIP” to take my mind off of Lauren and 2×2. Although, this bag seems to be doing that far too well! As you can see from my WIP bars, I am nearly done on this one.

It is a really easy “Knit kit” from Marks and Spencer of all places, I picked it up on e-Bay for a fiver. You get a lovely pair of bamboo 12mm, a charming little knitter’s needle, also in bamboo, with 2 balls of “yarn” (fibre content not listed, which is very annoying!) and a little “made with love” label. Along with the pattern, there is also a little “How to knit” leaflet.

I’ve altered things slightly, they say to knit the handles seperate, and then slip stitch them on, but instead I’ve picked up and k to the top, an used a kitchener graft to attach it at the other end. That was fun, I did it 4 times before I got it right!

Still, I will know how for the other handle better, and then all I have to do is line it and sew it together!

Don’t get me wrong, once this is finished, she is going to be stunning… but like any lady, Lauren needs your undivided attention!

You knit her in sets of 3 rows, and as each row is over 100 stitches, it take about 40-50 minutes for me to do a set. It is a rather convaluted process:

“C096”, then “p2,*yo p4tog* P2”, then “K2, *k1 (k1,p1,k1)into the yo* (to put the stitches back that you just toge’d) k2”, followed by “CO4, then k to end” to set it all in place.

Repeat that until you have 128, then BO 4 instead of CO 4 until you are back to 96st and BO.

So, you see this is going to take me quite a while! I also really need to concentrate on it not to go wrong, if you fluff it, it is a right pain! I took it to NWk2tog last night, they all loved it, but I warned the group that I doubt I’ll be knitting it with them! I probably will at some point though, NWk2tog is my “dedicated kniting time”, and I can’t see me carving 40 minutes out of life anywhere else for this lady!

This shade of Linen Print is sadly now discontinued, but I have no clue why, it is amazing! The picture of this WIP doesn’t do the yarn justice really.

… or "The night I learned to Purl properly…"

One of the reasons why my 2×2 scarf has taken me so long to do is that until about 2 weeks ago, I was unknowingly twisting my purl stitches.

I couldn’t understand why the rib fought me so much. On the WS, I found that I was having to knit into the back of the knit stitches to make it work. The front of the stitch was just not open to me putting the neddle into it at all.

Now, that’s OK, but it does slow your flow down drastically. I would do maybe 6cm or so, and get fed up with it and swap to doing something else. (Normally non-knitting related!)

However, I was searching for information on how to make socks, and came accross http://www.knittinghelp.com

There are some wonderful videos, and Amy has worked hard to make everything really clear and understandable.However, it can be a little slow to download, even on Broadband, so I spent the $20, and bought the CD from the site.

I got the CD about 4 days after i ordered it, on a Friday night. So, as I wasn’t out and about (for a change!) I picked up a ball of black Jaeger Aran, and some 6mm needles, so I could practise along with the Vids I was watching…

Apart from being very impressed with the layout of the CD, and th quality of the videos and narration of her stitches, I hadn’t realised that when I was purling, I was throwing the yarn around the needle clockwise. It just made sence that way, however, as you can no doubt guess, that is what was making my life purling hell. From the videos, I saw that you throw anti-clockwise, whether you are knitting or purling, and once I got that, it made my ribbing so much easier!

I stayed up until 4am, playing with various style of inc and dec, YO, and learned seed stitch with my new found purling confidence.

I made this swatch. Of course, I now wish I had picked up the cream Aran, so you could see all my pretty stitching!

Taking the step back in time again, I thought I would share some pictures to my past projects interspersed in the curent ‘bogging. I will be putting them in the WIP page as well, seems silly to not do eh?

The project I think I have been working on the longest is my SariSilk rib scarf:

I started it just after I finished UnBiased in November 2004, because I naturally wanted a matching scarf. So, I started out doing the same “Diagonal knit” on 5mm that the main panel of Unbiased is.

After about 4 hours work, I had a paltry 40cm and had used 2 whole skeins of SariSilk! It weighed a tonne as it was, and I reckoned that it would take another 5 skeins or so to get any decent length, and as this stuff is about 10.00GBP a skein on average, there were really too many disadvantages to carry on with it as it was. With a heavy heart, to the Frog-Pond it went. 🙁

I still wanted a scarf though, so I investigated the ‘net, and found a “Fisherman’s Rib” Sari-Silk scarf pattern, on 10mm needles.
http://www.yarns-and.com/Himalaya/HIMsilk.htm

After discovering that I had no clue how to actually knit the pattern (and I still don’t understand it now!), I settled on a plain 2x2rib, using one 10mm and one 7mm needle. That gives it a nice bumpy, loose weave texture, and after about a skein and a half, it is about 80cm. Much more acceptible!

However, it is rather heavy still, so I am going to put another 1/2 skein on it, and stitch the ends together, to make it a Neck shrug.